Talk to any startup or incubator and they will tell you: your first idea is almost never going to be your best.
That is true even for some established companies. Sometimes they will come up with an idea for an awesome feature, but one that just doesn't quite fit into their overall mission. So, instead, they create a spin-off app, keeping that feature separate from its existing product.
Then, lo and behold, that new app takes off like a rocket, becoming even more popular than the original app. The company is then left with a choice: does it continue to work on both, or pviot to put its efforts behind the product that people are responding to?
You know the answer: of course they pivot and go with the hot idea, selling off the original app. It's what happened to Zimride, and now it is what is happening with Tracks.
The service, which allowed users to create their own personal social networks around their experiences, will focus all of its attention from now on its photo sharing app called Kanvas, and is renaming itself Kanvas Labs, according to a report out from VentureBeat on Tuesday.
Kanvas is an app that gives allows users to create imagines that combine with stickers and text, which can then be shared either on the network or social media.
Launched in July of last year, engagement on Kanvas has exploded, founder and CEO Vic Singh told VentureBeat. Users come back to the app five to ten times every day, and that number is climbing higher with the launch of a feature that rewards users for sharing.
While the company will no longer be updating Tracks, that does not mean the app is dead. In fact, the company is currently looking for potential buyers.
Founded in late 2010, and then launching in June 2011, New York City-based Tracks is available in over 100 countries worldwide.
As of April of last year, the Tracks app had been installed over 1 million times, with users making 1.5 Tracks per minute, uploading 1 photo every second, and forming a 124 connections every minute. The network had 15 million social connections with 33.5% of daily active users using the app at least two times a day, and 50.2% using it at least two times a week.
The number had no doubt grown even higher in the last year. Given those metrics, Tracks should be able to find a company willing to buy it.
In addition to the pivot, the company also announced that it has raised $1 million in seed funding from KEC Ventures, Scout Ventures, Dace Ventures, and others.
Tracks had raised $1 million in seed funding from the venture arm of General Catalyst, TMT Investments, Eniac Ventures and others, in December 2011, as well as $437 million from TMT in November 2011.
VatorNews has reached out to Tracks to confirm the news, to find out more about this pivot, and what it means for the company's future. We will update if we learn more.
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Steven Loeb
Startup/Business
Joined Vator on
Tracks is building the experience graph. The Tracks mobile and web service that lets users effortlessly make micro-social networks around real world experiences. 'Tracks’ can be geo, temporal or last forever. Make tracks for a family cruise, football season, date nights, pub crawls, a year in college. Each track is a living social network based on thematic experiences in the real world. Tracks are framed around rich media and made over time and across locations. This lightweight concept lets users map fluid real world networks.
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Vic Singh is a two-time entrepreneur and venture capitalist in the mobile space. He is Founder and CEO of Tracks and a Founding General Partner with ENIAC Ventures.
